Founded | 1835 |
---|---|
Founder | William Houghton Allen |
Defunct | 1991 |
Successor | Virgin Books |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Headquarters location | London |
Publication types | Books |
Nonfiction topics | Nonfiction |
Fiction genres | Science fiction |
Imprints | Target Books |
Owner(s) | Ebury Publishing |
William H. Allen and Company (est. 1835) was a bookselling and publishing business in London, England, [1] at first known for issuing works related to the British colonies. [2] It operated from headquarters in Leadenhall Street, later moving to Waterloo Place. Early owners and staff included James P. Allen, William Ferneley Allen (d. 1877), and William Houghton Allen. [3]
After a series of acquisitions, the W. H. Allen name disappeared in 1991.
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2022) |
By 1975 W. H. Allen was part of the British conglomerate Howard & Wyndham Ltd. During 1977 and 1978 the Wyndham identity was phased out, with the whole publishing line being identified with the W. H. Allen brand. The Target Books paperback line became well known for its highly successful range of novelisations and other assorted books based on the popular science fiction television series Doctor Who .
In 1977, W. H. Allen acquired Warner Communications' publishing division, including Williams Publishing and Thorpe & Porter; but by 1978–1979 W. H. Allen decided to close down both divisions. [4]
W. H. Allen was acquired by Virgin Books in a process that spanned late 1986 to late 1987. [5] Virgin Books was incorporated into W. H. Allen in 1989, but in 1991 W. H. Allen was renamed Virgin Publishing Ltd. Random House, through its United Kingdom division, acquired a 90% stake in Virgin Books in March 2007. [6] In November 2009, Virgin became an independent imprint within Ebury Publishing, a division of the Random House Group. [7]
Henry Thomas Colebrooke FRS FRSE FLS was an English orientalist and mathematician. He has been described as "the first great Sanskrit scholar in Europe".
George William MacArthur Reynolds was a British fiction writer and journalist.
John Borthwick Gilchrist was a Scottish surgeon, linguist, philologist and Indologist. Born and educated in Edinburgh, he spent most of his early career in India, where he made a study of the local languages. In later life, he returned to Britain and lived in Edinburgh and London. In his final years, he moved to Paris, where he died at the age of 81.
Major-General Samuel Wilson was a career Bombay Army officer, and was commander in chief in Bombay in 1826. He retired in 1826 and went back to England after 46 years of service.
William Dugdale was an English publisher, printer, and bookseller of politically subversive publications and pornographic literature in England during the 19th century. By the 1850s he had become "the principal source of such publications in the country". Despite the numerous police raids on his shops and spending many years in prison he remained in the book trade for over forty years.
James Atkinson was a surgeon, artist and Persian scholar — "a Renaissance man among Anglo-Indians".
William Pelham (1759–1827) was a bookseller and publisher in Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He kept a shop and circulating subscription library at no.59 Cornhill, 1796-1810.
Ebenezer Battelle (1754–1815) was an American Revolutionary War veteran, a bookseller in Boston, Massachusetts, and a settler of Marietta, Ohio, in the late 18th century.
Maria Elizabeth Budden, was a novelist, translator and writer of didactic children's books, who frequently signed her work "M. E. B." or "A Mother". Her True Stories... series of history books for young people remained popular for many years. Little has come to light about Budden's life.
Henry Dominic Phillips was a British civil servant of the Indian civil service who served as an official member of the Madras Legislative Council from 1863 to 1868. He took his seat in December 1864.
Samuel Ludlow was a British surgeon in the East India Company medical establishment, serving in the Bengal Presidency in British India during the first half of the 19th century. Ludlow spent many years at the Delhi Residency, the headquarters of the British Resident to the Mughal Court in Delhi. The Resident's Office was created some time after 1803, when the British acquired Delhi, which soon became the Delhi Territory within the Ceded and Conquered Provinces, a part of the Bengal Presidency.
John James Snodgrass, was a British military officer, aide-de-camp and son-in-law to Sir Archibald Campbell, 1st Baronet and author. He fought in the Battle of Waterloo. The last seven years of his life were spent in Halifax, Nova Scotia where he died and is buried in the Old Burying Ground.
Francis Brooke Norris was a British colonial administrator who was the fourth Surveyor General of Ceylon. He was appointed in 1833, succeeding Gualterus Schneider, and held the office until 1846. He was succeeded by W. H. Simms.
George Parbury (1807–1881) was a British publisher with a special interest in India, a freemason in India and London, Master of Merchant Taylors livery company, Justice of the Peace for two counties and Deputy Lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets.
Arthur Lumley Davids was an English orientalist and linguist. He was born in Hampshire, the only child of Jewish parents Sarah Lumley and Jonki Davids.
George Francis Brown (1802–1871) was a British civil servant of the East India Company, and Commissioner of Bhagalpur, Bihar at the time of the Santhal rebellion.
The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and its Dependencies was a regular publication which aimed to be “a faithful register of Indian Occurrences”.
Joseph Walker Jasper Ouseley was a British orientalist and a colonel in the British Army.